The fools are not capable of managing what hey had, but wanted more of the troubled assets on their books!

It would be interesting to find out how much money these crooks hauled home at the end of 2008 for their incompetance..

Even factoring out the left-leaning point of view in this film, one can’t help but be disgusted by the banking “industry” and its hangers-on.

The collusion (corruption) between the government and the banking industry is nauseating (and all this before the bailout-palooza). Why any of the big-shots at these banks are still employed is beyond me. I’d like to see them stripped of their assets as penalty for dragging us to this point. They ought to struggle like so many of the people left to pay for their mess.

Congress-critters should also be governed by the same ethics regulations that government employees and contractors are governed by. A cop could lose his job and, possibly, wind up in jail for taking anything of value yet the goofballs in Congress take scads of lucre and it’s all “legal”.

Some readers here may recall that it was the acquisition of Golden West, with all its bad paper, that brought down Wachovia. A bold and audacious move on the part of Wachovia; a disaster that brought down their company.

Yeah, I work at Wells Fargo, and I just got laid off. Of course Wells Fargo foolishly bought Wachovia. I am glad you brought up Golden West, for that was the poison pill. If one follows the money this whole recession/depression started in CALIFORNIA. From there it migrated to Arizona, Las Vegas and Miami. It started from the actualization of the bigger fool theory (I don’t like bubble, because it makes it sound small). Prices rose 20 to 50 percent a year. NOBODY CARED. NOBODY will get the money back either. It did not matter what one paid for property, because a bigger fool would come along and pay more.

Since we had non-prime loans, 100 percent financing and fraudulent appraisals, we had an abundance of fools. Until the price would reach the Max a working couple could pay to buy a house. Then the collapse. Add the stupid Mark to Market rule of the SEC and we have a global collapse.
Where was Bush, Greenspan, Bernanke, Paulson while all this was happenning? Probably figuring out how to get even richer.

jjmurphy said:
Man, I wish I had some cash I could convert into gold and silver. The US Dollar will be worth a lot less soon.

I managed to cash out a mutual fund retirement plan I was in, but only after I had lost 30% of its value. Before it was done, it had lost over HALF its value. Glad I got out when I did. I then put the cash into gold, solid real gold. Metal, not futures.

It’s my insurance policy, for when we go Weimar.

As a resident of North Carolina, I pay some attention to the fortunes of Charlotte’s two megabanks, Wachovia and Bank of America. The unlikely rise of Charlotte as a banking center competitive with New York has been a source of pride hereabouts and tremendously important to the local economy.

I was always amazed at the rise of these two giants which, of course, grew by continually gobbling smaller and weaker institutions. But after a while, I came to feel that all of this was driven by imprudent, prideful ego and ambition. “Greed,” yes, but in my imagination, it came to be more about “ego and ambition.”

It seemed obvious to me that there was a lack of due diligence in these decisions, although I concede that I only read the newspapers and do not know anything, really, about the analytical work that precedes these deals, except that they go very fast. How much due diligence could there be?

And, of course, no observer of the modern business scene can neglect the fact that the men who run these enterprises are completely beyond the possibility of personal financial pain. They will never be less than fabulously wealthy, regardless of what messes they make.

Some readers here may recall that it was the acquisition of Golden West, with all its bad paper, that brought down Wachovia. A bold and audacious move on the part of Wachovia; a disaster that brought down their company.

And now we find that Charlotte’s other megabank, Bank of America, is being saved from choking on the Merrill Lynch deal only by this latest taxpayer bailout. Once again, a voracious appetite and untempered ambition led to to the brink of disaster.

But — as I say — the big boys do not really feel the consequences except to their egos. At worst, they may have to retire to their private yachts and planes, personal chefs and chauffeurs, and their multiple estates. I guess they will be a little moody as they gaze out over the Mediterranean from their anchorage in Cannes. Life must be tough for them.

I am a capitalist but something is out of whack here. I am not optimistic that the government can fix it, because, clearly, the government has been a big part of the problem. Plus, of course, government is inept and corrupt.

We’re in quite a pickle. (Some of the most responsible comments I am hearing are coming from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who might be a little more comfortable with Euro socialism than we like but has zero patience with the sort of money-printing frenzy that we have embarked on to save ourselves.)

Makes me sick!

On January 16th, 2009 at 11:40 am, Paul Revere said:
This is the same bank that welcomed illegals by issuing credit cards to them. My sympathy meter doesn’t even register where BofA is concerned.

Include Miller and Absolute on that list too.